The Herald has gotten involved…check it out.
Archive for the 'Billboards' Category
The Coconut Grove Billboard saga seems to have turned a new page with the latest advertisement recently posted on the corner of US-1 and 
A cheap shot from Tom Falco of the Coconut Grove Grapevine insinuates that we’re the “whiners” up ahead. For the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce to assert that the downtown is full of whiners is downright absurd. It’s actually comical that our area NIMBY’s have decided to complain about other people complaining…
- Home depot
- Metrorail Grove TOD Project (Part: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc…)
- Related Condos
- Area Parking
“I know one purpose of the Metrorail was to have development around to allow people to use mass transit, but Metrorail really doesn’t go where people want to go,” Tom Falco, a blogger for CoconutGroveGrapevine.com, wrote in an e-mail to the SunPost. “The development will do nothing but add traffic and congestion to the area.”
That silly Metrorail line, the obvious way to incite people to use it is build as little as possible around the stations? Hmm.
What really irks us about this billboard and especially its predecessor is the way it takes advantage of a neighborhood within the same municipality. The cannibalization that the Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce has committed with these billboards continues to dissect and fragment the City of
“Very good marketing. It has led to comment, which is the goal of advertising.”
The billboard has met its objective, it has led us to comment and take notice of the fallacies portrayed through it, but it also begs the question: what is the objective of the CG Chamber of Commerce when so often residents mobilize against prospective urban commerce?
In closing, we should mention that we have no problem with Coconut Grove, or any other neighborhood for that matter, marketing itself with a positive message. We’re all for that, and in fact, TransitMiami was designed as our platform to promote a more livable, sustainable Miami - all neighborhoods included. However, it will always be counterproductive and simply inappropriate for a neighborhood to market itself at the expense of another when the two share the same municipal boundaries. This is especially true, given that the City of Miami is already competing against 34 other municipalities in the same county.
- MDT’s Buses on the shoulder program is going well. With 50% fewer late buses the pilot program is looking good thus far along the Killian routes.
- Last year’s fastest growing Transit System, Tri-Rail, is working the kinks out of its latest “service enhancements.” The agency is still struggling to gain dispatch control from CSX and last week experienced a dismal on time performance between 50-60%…
- Remember those stupid trucks with billboards which drive around and cause congestion, pollute, and obstruct your view? Here are the people responsible…
- Sunpass will be selling at half price to placate 13,000 people who live in sprawl-land, or something of the sort…What I’d like to know is when we’re going to wake up and start using toll money to finance real transit projects… (Via SOTP)
- New Blogs added to the Miami Blogroll: Miamism, Miami-Forum, South Florida Theatre Scene
The increasing number of advertisements appearing on nearly every rising structure in the Miami Skyline is alarming, let alone visually assaulting. Almost every building has some sort of tarp-like advertising perched on its side, plastered with the face of D-wade or some product you have absolutely no interest in to begin with. It seems that everyone has their own version of how to create a time square in Miami; I can assure you this isn’t it. The City of Miami and Miami-Dade County are finally working to draft ordinances which would place greater fines on property holders and limit the number of these illegal ads dotting our new landscape. If only now they could do something to persuade our Florida Legislature to repeal the ordinance allowing for the removal of trees which are obstructing the sight of permanent billboards.
I took these pictures as I walked around downtown last week on my way to a meeting. The first two pictures depict what these hideous banners look like, typically placed on uncompleted high-rises or on the blank walls of existing structures. The Third picture below is of a recent new addition to the advertising assault: the Mobile ad aka Media Truck. Believe it or not, some people pay large sums of money to have their ads plastered to the side of a truck whose only objective is to drive around and be seen…
This billboard was recently erected at the corner of SW 27th Avenue and US-1 by the northern boundary of the Grove. What a bunch of garbage - it appears this sign is implying that true urban living (e.g. Brickell, Downtown) is inherently stressful, while the less urban nature of the Grove is some desirable suburban oasis that is stress-free. What is even dumber is that the Grove and Brickell/Downtown are all neighborhoods within the City of Miami; therefore, this billboard illustrates that Miami actually has it’s own neighborhoods competing against each other as if they were separate cities.
Perhaps this is emblematic of the hyper-fragmentation within Miami-Dade County, or perhaps it is a latent message via the Grove’s NIMBY force that longs for a neighborhood that more closely resembles a “sleepy little village” then a unique urban environment characterized by lush, tropical foliage, a rich history, and strategic location. Regardless, it’s definitely not the kind of message the City should embrace, especially given the current efforts to make Miami physically and operationally a denser, more traditional urban environment. Nor should it embrace it because one of it’s most popular neighborhoods is taking a shot at the City’s urban core, including its CBD and Financial District. Ironically, it is actually the denser environment that leads to less stress. This makes walking and taking transit much more feasible and friendly, which almost always means a less stressful environment than auto-dependent ones which happen to characterize much of the Grove.
I mentioned this recently, but was only able to snap a picture of it yesterday. There were at least 4 others of these along the way. I find it absurd that our tax dollars are being spent on advertising the fact that toll running will not be tolerated. Instead of highway improvements, more road rangers, or simply more FHP (you know, to catch the toll runners), our money is going down the drain with catchy slogans on oversized billboards. I can only imagine what the Clear Channel bill amounts to. What was the point of those electronic billboards (Florida Sun Guide) if we never intended to use them to actually advertise highway related information? Just another instance of our tax dollars at waste…
Driving around this afternoon, I found a palm which nearly impeded my view of one of those wonderful billboards this new law will protect. I was worried for a second that the palm may cover up the phone number for this fine South Florida establishment or at least the semi erotic, neon, oscar-like statues…
Folks, this is a serious issue that we shouldn’t take lightly. I implore everyone to pass out the petition to attempt to repeal this blatantly stupid special interest law…
Special Thanks to Rick, for already trying to spread the word…
Recent Comments